During a recent meeting with a potential vendor, Mr. Rains and I were describing the needs of the district. Suddenly Cameron said something so prolific it resonated within my cognitive conscientiousness for days. He exclaimed to the vendor that we were focused on the district's "One Thing" to make sure we remained steadfast on our journey toward true student learning. This "One Thing" is helping us to avoiding fads, distractions, confusion, and adding to the already full plate of our teachers and administrators? The discussion quickly shifted to how CPCSC was on the High Reliability School path; the "One Thing". Covey writes, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."
The central framework of HRS prohibits various initiatives from existing in a vacuum and joins them together into functional harmony. There are numerous research-based "Best Practices" which may be observed throughout the district. All of these serve a noble purpose and improve instruction. The range includes, but by no means is limited to Rasinski literacy, Mattos' RtI, Smekens' writing, SIOP, DuFour's Professional Learning Communities, and Daily 5 by The Sisters. What do these practices and processes have in common? The answer, for some, may be nothing but yet for others it could be everything, Each fits intentionally somewhere within the structural levels of High Reliability Schools. What is the CPCSC "One Thing"?
The chart on this page is a simple matrix which depicts how the micro is related in regards to the mission of the corporation. Remember that every decision made by district leaders, building administrators, and teachers must directly translate to student achievement. If a decision fails to meet this criterion, then it probably is not a priority. Anyone in our organization should be able to answer the "One Thing" question. Now a default response could be "student achievement" but that is more a generality and rather nebulous instead of speaking in terms of specifics. This opens the door to a critical argument concerning how is this accomplished?
A worthwhile exercise could be to pair various initiatives to the potential level in HRS where they might correspond. The following are only a sample of the questions one could ask in search for "One Thing".
1. Where does PLC fit?
2. Where does Daily 5 reside?
3. Which level encompasses Essential Learnings?
4. What about the placement of scales and growth-based reporting?
5. What about each school's improvement plan?
6. Does the building HRS team go somewhere?
7. Is the language of instruction part of HRS?
8. Do evaluations connect?
9. Response to Intervention, what about RtI?
The point here is whether everyone within the organization can answer the question, what is our "One Thing"? Many school corporations can claim something different for their main thing. I am sure Adlai Stevenson High School in Illinois and others around the country may identify theirs as professional learning communities. Others still may answer the same question by The Eight Step Process. Those are sufficient answers because at least they can identify some larger coherent structure. HRS could be defined as Clark-Pleasant's because it provides a flexible opportunity to guide the strategic planning process for years to come in respect to what schools will look like now as well as down the road. In my career this is the first time in which the dynamics of education have come together in a logical manifestation. I can ask myself specific and deliberate questions and associate them to a complete portrait. So when someone asks you what our "One Thing" is, how will you answer?
Posted by John Schilawski 8.18.14
The central framework of HRS prohibits various initiatives from existing in a vacuum and joins them together into functional harmony. There are numerous research-based "Best Practices" which may be observed throughout the district. All of these serve a noble purpose and improve instruction. The range includes, but by no means is limited to Rasinski literacy, Mattos' RtI, Smekens' writing, SIOP, DuFour's Professional Learning Communities, and Daily 5 by The Sisters. What do these practices and processes have in common? The answer, for some, may be nothing but yet for others it could be everything, Each fits intentionally somewhere within the structural levels of High Reliability Schools. What is the CPCSC "One Thing"?
The chart on this page is a simple matrix which depicts how the micro is related in regards to the mission of the corporation. Remember that every decision made by district leaders, building administrators, and teachers must directly translate to student achievement. If a decision fails to meet this criterion, then it probably is not a priority. Anyone in our organization should be able to answer the "One Thing" question. Now a default response could be "student achievement" but that is more a generality and rather nebulous instead of speaking in terms of specifics. This opens the door to a critical argument concerning how is this accomplished?
A worthwhile exercise could be to pair various initiatives to the potential level in HRS where they might correspond. The following are only a sample of the questions one could ask in search for "One Thing".
1. Where does PLC fit?
2. Where does Daily 5 reside?
3. Which level encompasses Essential Learnings?
4. What about the placement of scales and growth-based reporting?
5. What about each school's improvement plan?
6. Does the building HRS team go somewhere?
7. Is the language of instruction part of HRS?
8. Do evaluations connect?
9. Response to Intervention, what about RtI?
The point here is whether everyone within the organization can answer the question, what is our "One Thing"? Many school corporations can claim something different for their main thing. I am sure Adlai Stevenson High School in Illinois and others around the country may identify theirs as professional learning communities. Others still may answer the same question by The Eight Step Process. Those are sufficient answers because at least they can identify some larger coherent structure. HRS could be defined as Clark-Pleasant's because it provides a flexible opportunity to guide the strategic planning process for years to come in respect to what schools will look like now as well as down the road. In my career this is the first time in which the dynamics of education have come together in a logical manifestation. I can ask myself specific and deliberate questions and associate them to a complete portrait. So when someone asks you what our "One Thing" is, how will you answer?
Posted by John Schilawski 8.18.14